Miss Michigan to students: Perseverance pays

During an attempt to win the Miss Michigan pageant, Angela Venditti suffered a setback that might have quashed her dreams.

Before judges, family members and friends, Venditti fell during her tap-dance routine, wiping out any chance to claim the crown and earn the right to represent the state in the Miss America Pageant.

“We can all relate (to disappointment),” Venditti told a group of L’Anse Creuse Public Schools middle- and high-school students Friday. “What kept me going was my belief that I really could succeed.

“I had to have the courage to persevere, to try again. I surrounded myself with positive people (who) lifted me higher and helped me have the courage to go again. I was able to win on my third attempt.”

Venditti, 25, a 2006 graduate of Eisenhower High School, was the keynote speaker Friday when the L’Anse Creuse Community Action Coalition and a host of other agencies presented the annual Dialogue Day at Trinity Lutheran School.

Venditti used Friday’s forum to make her most-passionate point: keeping kids drug and alcohol free.

“Drugs and alcohol get in the way of goals,” she said.

Five years ago, at age 20, Venditti told the students, she lost a cousin of the same age to a heroin overdose.

“Telling my story, I’ve been surprised when people come up to me and tell me their stories,” she said.

Venditti encouraged the students to provide guidance for their peers.

“As Miss Michigan, I’m an automatic role model,” she said. “But you’re all role models, too.”

The reigning Miss Michigan will surrender her crown in June. Then she’ll begin the task of putting her communications degree from Oakland University to work in an as-yet undecided career.

The Dialogue Day event brings together middle- and high-school students along with business, civic and community leaders for an opportunity to talk and listen to each other.

Students and their adult guests gather in break-out sessions for frank conversations about such topics as developing relationships, drug and alcohol abuse, actions and consequences and family interactions.

“I like it a lot,” said Kayla Chattinger, an eighth-grader at L’Anse Creuse Middle School East. “I feel like we’re all equal and we can just talk and feel comfortable.”

Diana Conklin, a middle-school counselor, said the event can serve as a springboard to addressing issues that affect the community both inside and outside of schools.

“It’s great for the kids to have an opportunity to meet community leaders that can help them make a difference in the schools and in society,” she said.

“Society has changed so much. There are so many issues with drugs and alcohol and bullying … it gives them a chance to share their thoughts and opinions and come up with a plan to help things get better.”

One student, Alec Duffiney, put his own unique spin on the “dialogue” part of Dialogue Day.

During a question-and-answer session with Miss Michigan, Duffiney raised his hand and politely asked, “Will you go on a date with me?”

“My friends were talking about it,” he explained later. “They said I wouldn’t do it.”